Memorandum

To:

Prof. Kathy Mercurio

From: Cesar Alan Morales Date: 5/5/2013 Re: Project One

The letter of transmittal is to explain what civil engineering holds for those that want to pursue the career such as myself. Making and searching for information helped me realize that there is more to a job than just going and work everyday. Overall creating this paper was not so much of a challenge, but was keeping up with the workload. Through out the whole paper, I struggled to keep up with the rest of the class simply because the class would move on and I was not quite there. To me that was the main reason for somethings being late. Also I had set up the interview with Mr. Ethington, but he later e-mailed me and told me that he could not meet up and would much rather have me e-mail the questionnaire to him. Thank you for showing me things I can use in the future like the outline. This will help me a lot, as I am not that organized and with the outline, it will help me keep on track better. Thank you and I hope to do better in the upcoming projects.

CIVIL ENGINEERING
http://www.sherbornes ensors.com/uploads/im ages/Images/civilengin eering_shutterstock_4 8944425.JPG

Cesar Morales English 2100 Prof. Kathy Mercurio Salt Lake Community College

February 23, 2013

Creating Tomorrows Future Today

Abstract: The Purpose of this report is to inform of what it is like in the working environment of
a civil engineer. An interview with John Ethington from ESI engineering was conducted to further understand civil engineering and the environment. In the company the employees are given the upmost respect and freedom to do curtain things, such as dressing casual to work except when meeting with a client, a suit is mandatory. To become a civil engineer a bachelors degree is needed as well as a good grasp on math and physics. Traveling is light depending on the company and how large it is. The salary is currently one of the highest for civil engineers. I would like to become a civil engineer and gain knowledge and experience, to better the world we live in.

Table of Contents Introduction.....1 Research Plan...1 Results of Study...2

Education..2 Dress Code....2 Work Environment........3 Travel.....3 Salary.....4

Discussion of Results...4 Conclusion4 Reference Page.5

Introduction:________________________________________
Roads, tunnels, dams, bridges, buildings, airports are just some projects that civil engineers design and supervise. About 12,100 civil engineers are employed by the federal government (Civil, 2012). Inside of civil engineering there are specialized areas such as geotechnical engineers which ensure that the foundation the project is going to be constructed on can handle it (Civil, 2012). Geotechnical engineers also find out how the environment will interact with the project. Structural engineers design and ensure that larger projects like tunnels, building, and bridges are strong and durable (Civil, 2012). Transportation engineers design and plan large and small projects such as airports, streets, and highways (Civil, 2012). To be an engineer quick decision making skills, leadership, writing skills, and math skills are needed.

Civil engineers are escential to our society today. Our world is constantly expanding and civil engineers are maping out and planing our cities. My purpose is to help people understand that without civil engineers, our modern world not be so. Civil engineering is for those that want to have a physical impact on the world.

Research Plan:_______________________________________
To find out more about what it is like to work and communicate in the everyday life of a civil engineer, a reaserch plan was executed with these steps. First a questionare was made to find out more about the work and what it will hold in the future for those that wish to peruse the career. With the questionare an interview was conducted with John Ethington from ESI Engineering. The questionare was simple and was also used to guide myself into finding the best informaition for this paper.

Once that was completed I went to my local library to find resourses that fit the questions. Even though the library is a valuable resource, it was not the best for providing information regarding the questions. The internet was the most resourcefull, as it not only helped me answer the questions, but it also was acredetid.

An interview was the next step, as the person answering the questions would be able to elaborate more and aid in answering. Unfortunatly the person I interviewed was busy, therefore asked me to send him the questionare through e-mail. Within a day the engineere had replied and had elaborated extensivly on the questions he had received. The final step was to analyze and interpreet the information, by putting it into the paper.

Results of Study:_____________________________________

Education
Complex problem solving, decision making, leadership, math, and writing skills have to be escential to a civil engineer. They aquir this through completing a bachlors degree in civil engineering and any of its specialties. The bachlorss degree must be aproved by ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering And Technology) in order to get licensure , which is needed to work as a professional engineer (Ramirez, 2012). Mr. Ethington of ESI engineering described that civil engineering programs take about four years to complete. The courswork involves mechanics and systems, fluid dynamics, mathematics, statistics and others depending on the specialty. Mr. Ethington elaborated by including information about masters degrees. About five of every civil engineer has one, and is only needed for getting a job as a manager. Although a masters degree is not needed, a bachlors degree is needed alonge with experience, that is aquired from working as an intern while completing a bachlors degree.

Dress Code
Ethington has worked in different engineering offices and in all of them there has been similarities and differences in the dress code both for women and men. If working for a large companie, buisness casual attire is a minnimum, and a suit if management is your current posision. Business casual consist of a nice pair of khakis and a long sleeve dress shirt for men and for woman a nice skirt and blouse would qualify. In the mid sized company that Ethington worked for he says that the dress code was fairly similar except that on Fridays employies were alowed to wear jeans. Ethington says that one of the biggest benefits to working in a smaller copanie is that most normal street clothes are acceptable both for woman and men. Smaller engineering companies have a more laid back mentality and dress code than those of larger companies. This all gets ruled out when meeting with a client, as looking more profesional with a suit is far superior than buisness casual.

Work Environment
Mr. Ethington describes his work environment as mostly indoors in offices. He explains that most of these companies are in cities because that is what is being developed. When public projects are those being handeled, they are mostly in the city, such as a road or a building. When working on a big project long hours are expected because most of these projects have deadlines and they must be met. Ethington sometimes steps out of the office to oversee the current project and to ensure that any problem that arises is solved and delt with, so there is no delay in meeting the deadline.

Travel
2

Traveling in the field of civil enginiering depends on the company. Large civil engineering companies need engineers that are able to go where the work is, whether it is in town or across the country (Barry, 2012, p.97). Ethington worked for a large companie that had several sites acrossed the country, therefore he traveled for two years constantly moving and lived in three states. During those two years of travel Ethington made 20% more than when he was not traveling. Even though spending time on the road means sacrificing family time, it has its perks. Ethington was considered more often for promotions, was paid more for time off, got bonuses, and had the oportunity to live in nice cities. Ethington missed family time durring those two years, but the travel was worth it.

Salary
Salary depends on the scale of projects the companie takes on and the experiense one has in the field. Furthermore there is an estemated annual wage for civil engineering about $77,560 (COPA, 2012, p.50). The Engineers earned about $83,340 compared to civil engineers which received $5,780 less. Federal government have the highest paying wages next to local government. The top 10% earn roughly $119,320 annualy and the bottom 10% about $50,560 (COPA, 2012, p.51). Those numbers being generated are amonge some of the best paid jobs in america.

Discussion of Results:_________________________________
Civil engineering is one of the most interesting types of engineering. It is not just specific to one thing; on contraire it covers a whole lot of other fields. Civil engineers take on projects such as sky scrapers, roads and other public works. The work environment is not as strict as other jobs and seems to be pretty laid back. This type of job is for those that like and have found math and science to come easy to them.

Conclusion:_________________________________________
At first I liked the idea of being an engineer because to me math and science are fun subjects. I enjoy learning new things. Sure sometimes math can get hard, but it feels good to figure something out. I feel like in this job there will always be new things that I will be figuring out and I will always have that sudden rush of joy you get from solving something hard.

References_________________________________________________
Barry, B. E., Drnevich, V. P., Irfanoglu, A., & Bullock, D. (2012). Summary of Developments in the Civil Engineering Capstone Course at Purdue University. Journal Of Professional Issues In Engineering Education & Practice, 138(1), 95-98. Civil Engineers : Occupational Outlook Handbook : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2012, March 29). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved February 7, 2013, from http://www.bls.gov COPA, M. M. (2012). Maintaining STANDARDS. Mechanical Engineering, 134(7), 48-51. Ramrez, F., & Seco, A. (2012). Civil Engineering at the Crossroads in the Twenty-First Century. Science & Engineering Ethics, 18(4), 681-687.